Yasmin Nakhuda, the former owner of Darwin the Ikea monkey, will find out Friday whether she can have her beloved pet back as she awaits a trial date.

She wiped away tears as allegations of neglect and abuse were discussed in an Oshawa courtroom Thursday afternoon. Defence lawyer Kevin Toyne read out emails from Nakhuda to a U.S. animal trainer.

Nakhuda wrote to the trainer, Lisa Whiteaker, for help controlling Darwin’s unruly behaviour. She described Darwin attacking and biting her when she tried to change his diaper, and biting her youngest son most viciously.

“At one point I was too scared and kept him in the same diaper for almost 36 hours,” she wrote. In other emails, she describes brandishing a wooden spoon and learning how to smack Darwin on the nose to discipline him.

To Nakhuda’s surprise, Whiteaker wrote back saying she had a lot to learn about primates and that he would likely attack someone in her office.

Nakhuda acknowledged she had made mistakes and she wasn’t fit to take care of him. “You are right to say that I am sitting on a time bomb,” she wrote.

“I took Darwin to bed with me and how I have created this clinging to me,” she wrote. “All I can do now is take Darwin to an animal shelter and I don’t even know one here.”

Nakhuda’s lawyer, Ted Charney, read witness statements from co-workers that said she brought Darwin to work nearly every day and he was inseparable from her. An animal control officer testified Darwin was “very excited” to see her after being seized.

Nakhuda is suing the Story Book Farm primate sanctuary in Sunderland, Ont., where Darwin was taken the day after he was seized by Toronto Animal Services in an Ikea parking lot. She claims they are “illegally detaining” the animal.

Superior Court Justice Michael Brown will rule Friday at 11 a.m. on whether to return the monkey to Nakhuda until the trial date. There has been no date set yet, and it could be three months or longer – a timeline her lawyer says is “devastating.”

Charney argued that Nakhuda was “tricked” into signing a surrender form by animal control officers. She was under the false impression that they had the power to seize the monkey permanently and that she was signing a document transferring it to a sanctuary, he said.

“That’s what she was told,” he said. “Darwin’s at animal services and if you want to get him someplace better, sign the form.”

The officer, David Behan, testified in a cross-examination that he simply told Nakhuda the monkey was a prohibited animal in Toronto. He also told her he did not know what the ramifications were under provincial law.

Behan said that he called his supervisor, Carl Bandow, for advice. “See if you can get the monkey signed over,” Bandow said.

Another animal control officer, Joseph Fiorillo, testified that she was “very upset” and “struggling” with whether to sign the form. “I was surprised when I came back that she signed it,” he said.

However, the lawyer for the sanctuary, Kevin Toyne, argued that as a real estate lawyer, Nakhuda must understand what the word “surrender” means.

He also pointed out that the supervisor did not say, “Make her sign the form,” or “Don’t let her leave without signing the form.”

“There was no gun to Ms. Nakhuda’s head that day,” he said. “It was her choice. She didn’t have to sign the form, but she did.”

Toyne said Darwin is currently thriving at the sanctuary. His muscle mass has increased and body hair has filled in, which the sanctuary attributes to him no longer being leashed or dressed up.

Nakhuda, who calls Darwin her “son,” has said she fears the bond between them is dwindling. Peggy Rice, a monkey specialist quoted by the defence, said that the bond would heal if they were kept apart for less than four months.